Weekly Blog

Welcome to Venison's Weekly Blog! Here you will find advice, show reviews, thoughts and short articles by the Venison Team. We welcome your input comments and thoughts in return! ​Thanks for reading Venison Magazine!

Dustin Harewood brings to canvas colliding worlds, where east meets west, both above and below sea level. His works mesh the importance of our climate and the heavy hand that media has, using the imagined to discuss our human footprint. Heavily influenced by the submerged landscapes, Harewood has used his memories to create a vibrant and elegant world.

by Nazish Chunara

She's Got a Lot on Her Mind // Reef Studies

Tell me a bit about your background. Where did you grow up and when were you first exposed to art?

I was born and raised in Brooklyn New York; East New York to be exact. My parents were from Barbados and immigrated to New York when they were in their late teens. My parents took me to Museums a lot, but my first major entry into the arts would have been Saturday morning art classes at the Brooklyn Museum. I did that for a few years, and it really made an impression on me. I think I was seven or eight at the time I startedAt eleven we all moved to Barbados. That’s where I went to high school (secondary school.)

You have stated that "Reef Studies" are based off a kind of memory. From your use of mostly bright colors, I imagine that these memories are prominently good ones?

The reefs I swam around near the shore in Barbados were not the most colorful. ​​I've never scuba dived or anything to see the nicer ones.

The things I paint/draw are mostly made up; ideas of what these deteriorating reefs would look like. In the beginning I collected a bunch of reference pictures and tried to make studies of them. I lost interest in doing that pretty quickly.

The element of media in these studies says a lot about how we, as humans, treat our environment. Why did you decide to include Japanese newspapers, and what does it signify?

My wife is from North Japan. We met at an art store here in Florida that she once worked at. I’ve made several trips to Japan to visit her family over the past few years. When I go I collect newspapers during the visits. After the Fukushima nuclear disaster, I remember being asked by many American/Barbadian friends and colleagues whether or not I would cancel my trips to Japan. I haven’t.

Fractured Growth // Reef Studies // 15" x 15"

Japan consumes a large portion of the world’s seafood. I’m still not fully aware of what consequences the large amount of radioactive material dumped into the Pacific would have on them or the ocean.​The intrusion of the Japanese newspapers signifies their (as well as our) incursion on these underwater landscapes. So it is very much about Florida, Japan and Barbados. All places with a lot of coastline.

Do you think that painting a mural, or a creating public work in general, affects the message you are sending?

​The cool thing about murals is that they engage the public directly. Not many people attend gallery openings and museums. Everyone however either drives down the road or walks through their neighborhood and sees murals.

I really like your use of the circular canvas. I see the shape all throughout your work. What is the significance of that?​The circles! I just got tired of working on squares and rectangles all of the time. The circles keep me on my toes, compositionally they present a different set of challenges.

I also just find them to be more elegant and visually softer in their presentation.

​What is your preferred medium?

When I teach painting at College I prefer to use oils. When I’m working on my own stuff I prefer acrylics. I need for things to dry as quickly as possible because applying multiple layers to the surface is very important for what I’m trying to achieve.

Garden // Mixed Media on Wood // 24" x 24" // 2016

What classes do you teach, and where?

I teach Painting, Drawing and Computer Graphics classes at Florida State College at Jacksonville.

What kind of response have you received about your work from your students?

My students usually say that they love my work... but what else could they say to my face?The real question is, what do they say about it when I'm not around!

​​If there was one place in the entire world you could paint a mural, where would it be and what would it be of?

That's a great question. I'd love to do a dead reef mural in Aoyama Tokyo.

Bold Bean CoffeeJax Beach

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Mon- Fri 6:30 am - 7pmSat and Sun 7am - 7pm

“Approach of the Irrepressible Conflict” - Black Bear // Faux Fur, Glue, Resin, Wood, Text from The Rise of the American Civilization

Join Verge PDX this Sunday for the opening reception of Danielle Schlunegger-Warner's solo exhibition at the Red Fox in North Portland on Sunday February 12th, 7-9pm.

This solo exhibition will be on display at Red Fox during regular business hours for the month of February. If you aren't able to make the opening, be sure to stop by during the month.

About the Artist:Danielle Schlunegger-Warner grew up amongst the shell shops and sand dunes of Ventura, CA. Her artwork is strongly influenced by 18th century Cabinets of Curiosity and early explorers.

Inspired by natural history and the museums that house it, Danielle creates her own worlds within this established context. Her new work presents a vision of exploration and conquest during the Age of Discovery in the Americas, searching for the misguided promise of untouched land and wild creatures from the perspective of naturalists and scientists, who are themselves invaders.

For her solo show at The Red Fox, Danielle presents a series of bear trophies that span the geographical history of the American Continent. In this new work she uses the addition of museum style info graphics to tell the story of the complicated relationship humans often have with the natural world. Pages from a used copy of "The Rise of the American Civilization" by early 20th C. historian, Charles Austin Beard, are just visible underneath the faux fur of the sculpted heads, linking their endangerment and extinction to parallel moments in American history. In addition to this series, Bobcat specimens from her natural history project, The Marcus Kelli Collection will also be on view.

About Verge PDXVerge is a Portland-based curatorial project. We regularly rotate art from talented emerging artists in Portland businesses. Find out more: http://vergepdx.com/ or @vergepdx on Instagram

This exhibition of Margaret Smithers-Crump’s work is one of 8 selected from among 137 proposals submitted for consideration for Manifest’s 13th season. It is the first solo exhibition Manifest has ever presented in multiple spaces at the gallery.

Three individual works will occupy two galleries, creating an environment through which viewers must pass, like small prey or symbiotic organisms, in order to experience them fully. As large wall-based installations the works insist upon a visceral, corporeal involvement on the part of the viewer. It is no accident that Smithers-Crump's works function perfectly to bridge, both literally and conceptually, between the two group exhibits also on view at this time. ​

"Through its inherent associations to life, death, and renewal, Vital explores water as the source and resource for all living beings and by extension, the vulnerability of the oceans. Acting as metaphors for a fragile existence, the glass-like artworks in this exhibition underscore the vital necessity of water on our planet.

Each installation is made of hundreds of unique hand cut, painted, and chemically bonded units of primarily recycled plexiglas. Individually formed and shaped by heat, these translucent pieces become both membranous and organic.

As glass is easily shattered, each of these plexiglas installations reminds us of the fragility of life on Earth and of the importance of water to its survival.”

Margaret Smithers-Crump is a Canadian artist based in Houston, Texas. She received her BFA in Painting from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio in 1973. For the last twenty years, Smithers-Crump has been exploring the aesthetic potential of Plexiglas in both painting and installations. She has had a series of solo and group exhibitions throughout Texas and the United States including her recent one person exhibitions at the Pearl Fincher Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX, Galveston Art Center, Galveston,TX; Imperial Center for the Arts and Sciences, Rocky Mount, NC; Penn College of Technology - Penn State, Williamsport, PA; and Lawndale Art Center, Houston,TX.